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Summary

"Evolution is one of the most powerful and important ideas ever developed in the history of science. Every question it raises leads to new answers, new discoveries, and new smarter questions. The science of evolution is as expansive as nature itself. It is also the most meaningful creation story that humans have ever found."—Bill Nye

Sparked by a controversial debate in February 2014, Bill Nye has set off on an energetic campaign to spread awareness of evolution and the powerful way it shapes our lives. In Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, he explains why race does not really exist; evaluates the true promise and peril of genetically modified food; reveals how new species are born, in a dog kennel and in a London subway; takes a stroll through 4.5 billion years of time; and explores the new search for alien life, including aliens right here on Earth.

With infectious enthusiasm, Bill Nye shows that evolution is much more than a rebuttal to creationism; it is an essential way to understand how nature works—and to change the world. It might also help you get a date on a Saturday night.

Author Biography

Bill Nye is a scientist, engineer, comedian, and inventor. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University where he studied under Carl Sagan, and worked on the 747 as an engineer at Boeing before creating and hosting his much-loved Emmy award-winning PBS/Discovery Channel show "Bill Nye the Science Guy." He holds three Honorary Doctorate degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Goucher College, and Johns Hopkins, and teaches at Cornell regularly as a visiting professor.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1 Introduction: Me and You and Evolution, Too2 The Great Creationism Debate3 Creation and the Second Law of Thermodynamics 4 Bottom-Up Design5 Deep Time—Dive in6 On the Origin of Evolution7 Lamarck and His Not-Acquired Traits8 My Prom and Sexual Selection9 The Red Queen10 Dogs Are All Dogs11 The Tree of Life—Or Is It a Bush?12 Biodiversity Comes in the Territory13 Fossil Records and Explosions14 Mass Extinctions and You15 Ancient Dinosaurs and the Asteroid Test16 Punctuated Equilibrium17 Contingency, Bottlenecking, Founding18 Mosquitoes in the Tube19 Convergence, Analogy, and Homology20 What Good Is Half a Wing?21 Human Bodies Are Walking Talking and Good Enough22 Evolution Is Why We Don't Believe in Evolution23 Micro or Macro—It’s Evolution24 Michael Faraday and the Joy of Discovery25 Medicine and You—Evolution at the Doctor’s Office26 Antibiotic Drug Resistance—Fight Back27 The Urge of Altruism28 Games Species Play29 Costly Signals30 Genetically Modified Foods—What the GMF?31 Human Cloning—Not Cool32 Our Skin Colors33 Is the Human Species Still Evolving?34 Astrobiologically Speaking—Is There Anyone Out There?35 The Sparks That Started It All36 A Second Genesis—of Life?37 Life’s Cosmic Imperative